Week 8: The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, by N.K. Jemison (6)

Oh I really liked this one. Also, I read The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms back to back with Sirens of Titan, so the intersection of religion and culture and all it’s tragic glories were fresh in my mind. I personally feel like either of these two books could comfortably fit onto the ‘Narrative of Spiritual Eduction’ list, in all fairness.

Questioning and challenging religious teachings and religious authorities isn’t anything new, either in fiction or in reality, as exemplified nicely by the roughly fifty years between when Sirens of Titan and The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms’ publications. But what I especially appreciate about The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is that it’s religion is something more flexible than we find in our Judeo-Christian tomes, and is, uniquely, still a story being told. Take Norse mythology, for example - the Nordic gods know, as they are living and creating the world, how the world will end, and what will happen afterwards. Their story is completed before it is finished, arguably through means of self-fulfilling prophecy, but the point is that thus so far, the Three are free from their ending; their story is still changing. They are still changing.

That’s really refreshing, as well as Yeine’s take on her role. I think N.K. Jemisin actually manages to capture the spirit of what Vonnegut was going for with Sirens of Titan in Yeine, with spiritual determinism and love. Yeine comes to know that she’s going to die early on in the novel, that her life was never her own and that she is essentially a very important doll for the greater powers of Sky to tug-of-war over. But Yeine doesn’t just go through the motions like Malachi Constant, nor does she scornfully fulfill her duty like Winston Niles Rumfoord. Like an actress trying to get into character, Yeine personalizes her destiny, and makes her situation workable to her terms as best she can to her own goals and values. Her murder is tragic, but she wasn’t unwilling to die, and in harboring the soul of the Goddess of Life and Death, that makes all the difference.

Her not denying love when she finds it or from where she finds it, with zero hesitation, makes me really appreciate Yeine. She’s a very emotionally healthy individual, for such an unbalanced world and situation she finds herself born into. Honestly, I’d be up for reading the next two books in the series when I have the time, although I think as a standalone this works really well.